Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

JET.COM OPENS FIRST STORE – A concept store called “Story” will open its doors on Wednesday to a temporary location in New York City for Jet to sell fresh groceries by Lindsay Rittenhouse at The Street. “Jet will sell its grocery items – including fresh produce, ingredients and culinary merchandise – at the store for six weeks. Workshops and cooking classes will also be held at the store throughout the display period.”Read more | CNBC story

How Amazon’s Bot Army Is Trouncing Walmart in E-Commerce Wars via Fortune. “Earlier this year, engineers at Walmart Stores who track rivals’ prices online got a rude surprise: the technology they were using to check Amazon.com several million times a day suddenly stopped working…Its technology unit, @WalmartLabs, was unable to work around the blockade for weeks, forcing it to retrieve Amazon’s data through a secondary source…”Read more

U.S. Asks Wal-Mart to Pay $300 Million to Settle Bribery Probe at Fox Business. “Wal-Mart hasn’t yet agreed to the offer, this person said, but negotiations are in the final stages…As the Obama administration prepared to leave office late last year, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission attempted to reach a settlement with the world’s largest retailer of as much as $1 billion.”Read more

Abercrombie & Fitch Is Reportedly Accepting Takeover Bids via Fortune. “Abercrombie has hired investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners to handle the takeover approaches, the two sources said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. There is no certainty that any deal will occur, the sources added.”Read more

Amazon is offering $250,000 to a team that comes up with an advanced robot for its warehouses by Arjun Kharpal at CNBC. “Amazon currently has more than 80,000 automated robots in its warehouses globally.”Read more

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Amazon to create permanent shelter for homeless families on its Seattle campus by Taylor Soper at GeekWire. “The new 47,000 square-foot shelter, run by Mary’s Place and opening in early 2020, will house more than 200 people each night.”Read more | NY Times article

Tiffany & Co. wades into the debate on climate change with an ad calling on President Trump to uphold the 2015 Paris climate accord by Ryan Kilpatrick at Fortune.Read more

Amazon fires back at Wal-Mart by slashing free-shipping threshold to $25 at CNBC. “The drop to $25 marks the second time in three months that Amazon has lowered its minimum requirement.”Read more

Target increases its free shipping threshold to $35 as Amazon drops to $25 by Courtney Reagan at CNBC.Read more

Overstock takes Wayfair to task by Allison Enright at Internet Retailer. “Overstock.com Inc. CEO Patrick Byrne used the e-retailer’s first quarter earnings call with investors to dole out some gritty details on how Overstock battles its biggest direct competitor, Wayfair Inc…he concluded that Wayfair can’t “grow themselves out” of the situation it is in and is “self-immolating.”Read more

Sears CEO: ‘We’re fighting like hell to change the way people do business with us’ by Lauren Zumbach at Chicago Tribune. “In an interview Tuesday, Lampert acknowledged Sears’ struggles and admitted that the turnaround is taking longer than expected. But he also complained about media coverage speculating on a possible bankruptcy, saying it is undermining the company’s efforts and has made it tougher for Sears and Kmart to work with suppliers.”Read Q&A

Apple Pushes Into Analyzing Your Sleep With Beddit Acquisition by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg.Read more

TRAMPLED BY AMAZON – Amazon invested millions in the startup Nucleus — then cloned its product for the new Echo by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “They must realize that by trying to trample over us — a premiere partner in the Alexa Fund ecosystem — that they are going to really cripple that ecosystem and put a warning out for others,” Frankel said.”Read more